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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

C. diffile Shows It's Face Again

If you don't already know, Mom's back in the hospital. Susan and June told me Monday morning about Mom having extreme diarrhea starting Saturday morning and it got worse Sunday. When I got over there Monday morning, I could see Mom was very weak and tired. By that afternoon, she was feeling much better. She ate good and she felt like doing a few exercises. She messed up maybe 4 diapers. Dad told me that she looked and acted a lot better than she did that weekend. According to Dad, Monday night into yesterday morning she wasn't so good. All day yesterday, she slept and couldn't keep her eyes open. I was afraid she was dehydrating fast. As soon as I got there yesterday, I went over to June's and grabbed a jug of Gatorade and had her drink it. I had Dad pick up some yogurt. I got on the phone with the Pharmacist about Mom's drugs. We thought that maybe some of the meds had diarrhea as a side effect and it turned out three of her drugs would cause diarrhea. Ugh! The Pharmacy told me not to take her off any of her meds without consulting her doctor. Do you realize how hard it is to get a hold of a doctor much less his nurse? Very very difficult! Maryann got a hold of the Alacare nurse to get a hold of Mom's doctors. By 1:30, Dad and I got real nervous. So, I got on the phone to the doctors and I still didn't get anything other than, "go to the hospital if you feel she is dehydrating." @!#$@! Dad wanted me to get on the phone with Dr. Lunsford's office to see if they could see Mom in the morning. This is the internal doctor that we want to transfer her to that way it will be closer for her to travel. The receptionist tried her best to fit Mom in, but couldn't. She told us that she thought Urgent Care could give her fluids, if we don't want to go to the hospital. I called Urgent Care and they can no longer give fluids and I wasn't about to send Mom back to our local hospital because of past events that have happened. Dad was afraid the trip to B'ham would take it's toll on Mom. He didn't want to take her back to St. V's because he's afraid they are the reason she's in the condition that she's in. He started talking about the hospital that her current internal med doctor resides. I asked him how he liked that hospital. Around 3:30, we were getting ready to leave for MCE when the phone rang. It was the Alacare nurse. She said that she finally got a hold of one of the doctors and he sent in a prescription for an antibiotic, Flagil, for her to take for the diarrhea. June couldn't understand why a doctor would give her an antibiotic to get rid of diarrhea. While Maryann and Dad went to get the prescription, June and I thought we should get her to the hospital for fluids. When Maryann and Dad got back, we told them what we thought and they agreed. So, Maryann, Dad and Mom loaded up in the vehicle and June followed in her car. I cleaned up the house, got April fixed up for the night and Katie and I left to go home. Susan kept me in touch with anything and everything Dad and them were finding out. Finally, the doctors discovered that Mom has C-def again. If you remember, she got this infection awhile back when she had the Strep Germ. According to doctors then, the antibiotic she was taking to kill off the Strep Germ was so strong that it killed off all of her good bacteria, causing the bad bacteria to take over her body. The main symptom of C. diffile is severe diarrhea and weakness. Maryann told me this morning that she was extremely dehydrated. The doctors have her in a room and she is on "Flagil." Her regular Internal Medicine doctor is suppose to come in to see how she's doing this morning. Yesterday, Mom's Physical Therapist, Cal, said that C-def is very hard to get rid of. He went on to say that some of his patients would have a history of C-def, show no signs, they are tested clear for the infection and six months later, they are diagnosed with it again. Maryann seems to think Mom had C-def before she left the rehab because the weekend she was suppose to leave, she got real bad sick with diarrhea and weakness. The rehab doctor thought she had a UTI and gave her antibiotics, Cipro, for it. She took the last Cipro Friday morning. This would make since because Mom started getting sick again Saturday morning. The Cipro might have been working, but just not strong enough like Flagil. I guess we'll give her the Flagil pills the next time she begins to show signs again.

Poor Mom, she didn't want to go back to the hospital. She was begging for us not to take her back. I felt so bad because it seems like as soon as she is released from the hospital, she is put right back into the rehabilitation center. If she had this C-def the whole time than that would explain why she couldn't do a whole lot like walk, stand, pivot around, exercise, etc. I'm still hopeful that once she is free of infections and other sickness that she might come back to us.

Thank you for all the prayers!

Katie UpdateI haven't been able to stay focused on the potty training because I've been at Mom and Dad's most of the day everyday, except for this past weekend. In the over all, she is still doing pretty good. She still doesn't like to go to the potty, she'll cry and beg not to go to the bathroom. When she does pee-pee in the potty, she gets excited and reminds me that she gets a piece of chocolate. Unfortunately, the time when she wants to potty train is around 9:30 - 11:00 at night, when it's time to go to bed.

Dad has learned this past week that you can't let Katie see you do anything because she will try her best to copy you. He rode her around on the lawn mower and later she tried her best to get it started. She is very independent and thinks she can do anything.

I've noticed this past week that she feels that I should do what she wants to do. She tells me where she wants to go and she notices the route I take. The other day, we were heading to Walmart. She said, "no Mom, I not want to go to Walmart today. I need to go to the playground." If she sees that we are taking the route home, she'll say "no Mom, I not want to go home right now. I want to see Grandma." If she thinks that I'm ignoring her, she'll say it louder. It's funny.

I've recapped our day in the past with her during bedtime. Now, she likes to recap her day with me. The way she says it is cute.

Political NewsAre you tired of this election yet? Doug and I are pretty tired. It seems like this race has been on going for years. Did you happened to see WWE the other night with all the politicans? Doug wanted to me show you our favorite clip on my blog. We liked Obama's the best.